UC Irvine
Cal State Northridge
'Eaters Visit Gauchos in Semis in Search of Finals Berth
November 11, 2014 | Men's Soccer
UPCOMING MATCHES
Big West Semifinal
(S2) UC Irvine Anteaters at (N1) UC Santa Barbara Gauchos
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 7:00 PM
Santa Barbara, Calif.
Live Stats
Final (if necessary)
Saturday, November 15, 2014 - TBD
Location: TBD
Live Stats
TOURNAMENT TIDBITS
The Big West Tournament is off and flying with 1st round matches going down on Saturday. The 'Eaters scored a 2-0 home victory over Sacramento State while Cal State Fullerton staved off elimination at UC Davis with a pair of goals in the final five minutes to win, 2-1.
The next step is the semifinals with UCI traveling to UC Santa Barbara and South counterparts, UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton, doing battle in Riverside.
UCI improved to 9-1-0 all-time in the Big West Tournament. The 'Eaters have won the tournament in four of its five trips. Its lone loss came in a semifinal match in 2010 at home to Cal State Fullerton.
Its last six tournament matches have all come at home, and with Saturday night's victory, UCI runs its streak to 316 minutes without allowing a tournament goal which came back in 2011 as part of the double-overtime victory in the final against UCSB, 3-2.
Santa Barbara was also the last site of an Anteater road tournament match back in 2009 as the 'Eaters took the final, 4-1. It also dropped Cal Poly, 2-1, in double overtime that season on the road.
Saturday night's match was the first for Sacramento State since joining the Big West. Goalscorers Matthew Tilley and Cameron Iwasa made noise just 89 seconds apart from each other.
Tilley buried his first of his career on a brilliant diving header off the corner kick. Iwasa drove on the keeper beating him 1v1 for goal No. 3 on the season and his first since non-conference play in late September. Iwasa's next goal will make him the 11th Anteater in program history with 20 or more career goals.
Elsewhere, Eduardo Calzada provided assists on each goal for the team's first multi-assist performance on the season. Bryan Breslin added an assist, his first of the year.
Michael Breslin scored his seventh shutout on the season, sixth at home. The Anteaters' last five wins have come by way of a shutout. In fact, nine of its 11 Big West matches have seen some sort of shutout.
RPI 'EM EATERS
The 'Eaters have bounced all about the national rankings throughout the season. UCI started the year ranked No. 16 in the NSCAA preseason poll, the fourth time in the last five seasons with its highest being No. 13 in 2012.
The Anteaters have been as high as No. 2 or 3 in some polls while also slipping at times out of the top-25. Their resume has stood strong following an 8-0-1 run through non-conference play with five wins away from home and a 2-0-1 mark against ranked opponents. Here's a look at the non-conference resume:
A draw at No. 5 RPI Georgetown, a squad that tied No. 6 Indiana and defeated No. 9 Creighton
A neutral-site win over No. 15 RPI Clemson, a squad with a win over No. 13 Providence, draw vs. No. 22 Louisville, and a stacked schedule featuring losses to No. 10 Syracuse, No. 3 Charlotte, and No. 21 North Carolina
A win at No. 35 West Virginia, who defeated No. 19 Penn State and lost to No. 30 New Mexico
Road wins over LMU and 13-win UNLV who lie in RPI top-60
Win over No. 45 RPI USD, a squad that beat No. 1 RPI UCLA
Even an exhibition win over No. 12 RPI Cal for good measure who just also took down the No. 1 RPI, UCLA
The Anteater RPI stands at No. 17. With 48 teams making the tournament field, 24 automatic conference bids and 24 at-large selections, the threshold stands right around the 33 through 39 slots for teams on the bubble looking for an at-large spot.
The Anteaters can hang their hat on a stout resume, but there is plenty of soccer to go to reach that only sure-fire way to get in the tournament, a Big West title.
SANTA BARBARA SEMIFINALS
The Gauchos have gone about their way in conference play leading the pack with a 6-2-2 mark. UCSB and UCI met in the second match of Big West play with a 1-0 win for the Gauchos thanks to a 90th-minute long-range goal from Nick DePuy.
DePuy has been on a tear scoring the program's last six goals including a pair of braces over their last two matches. He leads the club with 10 goals on the year, second-most in the conference, eight of them coming in conference play along with six being game-winners.
The sophomore has been complimented by a slew of other underclassmen in 2014. Freshmen Ludwig Ahl and Axel Mendez hold a majority of the points with four goals and assists for Ahl and three of each for Mendez. Of its 19 goals this year, only six have come from juniors or seniors.
Even the net has been minded by underclassmen. Sophomore Josh McNeely surveyed the goal from six starts to begin the year, while freshman Brandon Berke has started the last 13 scoring eight wins and four shutouts. He hasn't had to do to that much work with no saves in three of the club's last five matches.
The squads are two of the most prolific scorers in the conference averaging about 1.5 goals per match and putting up nearly 15 shots each per match. Each squad also earns a sizable amount of corner kicks while allowing the least amount of shots on target.
The physicality separation is about as far as you can get with UCSB committing 4.5 more fouls per match than UCI and nearly doubling them in cards issued. The foul count was nearly even in their first meeting while each was issued a pair of cards.
The October 4 match was really a tale of two halves. The 'Eaters had all the possession early on and put up five of the match's six shots and all five corner kicks. UC Santa Barbara turned it around outshooting the 'Eaters, 7-5, in the second half and earning five corners of their own before delivering the crushing blow with 37 seconds left in the match.
The schools have met three times prior in the Big West Tournament. This will be the first meeting in the semifinals. The last installment saw the 'Eaters prevail in the 105th minute, 3-2, to secure the conference title. UCI has knocked home four goals in each of the other two matches, a 4-1 win at Santa Barbara in 2009 and a 4-2 home win in 2008.
All-time, the Gauchos hold the series lead winning 31 times with three draws. This will be the 51st installment of the series. The Gaucho win in October extended their win streak to three in the series while ending a run of three straight matches that went to double overtime and that didn't feature a shutout.
The Anteaters lost in its first seven trips to Santa Barbara. Since then, they have eight wins and a draw in 26 visits. The last 15 matches have been a dead heat, 7-7-1. The Gauchos have won seven of the nine matches that have gone to overtime.
UCR and CSUF will play Wednesday at 7 PM, as well. Coupled with an 'Eater win, UCI would travel to Riverside on Saturday while a Fullerton win would bring the final back to Anteater Stadium.
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